Introduction

The Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its transformative potential across a broad range of the Department’s activities.

To maintain technological superiority and address emerging national security challenges, the DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is pleased to announce a new Strategic Focus Area within its Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO): Frontier AI.

A frontier AI model is defined as “a general-purpose AI system near the cutting-edge of performance, as measured by widely accepted publicly available benchmarks, or similar assessments of reasoning, science, and overall capabilities.” Frontier AI encompasses technologies such as large pre-trained models and AI agents that perform a wide variety of tasks, including complex reasoning, planning, and domain-specific problem solving.

Through the Frontier AI strategic focus area, the CDAO will award several contracts for the application of these technologies to critical defense challenges. These awards will span multiple areas of interest, from mission-specific applications to enterprise platforms, providing avenues for innovative solutions from diverse organizations and fostering collaboration between complementary capabilities.

Areas of interest

Within this strategic focus area, the CDAO is seeking innovative solutions in four key areas:

1. General-use Platforms;
2. Mission-specific Applications;
3. Critical Enablers; and
4. Specialized AI Compute and Infrastructure.

General-use Platforms

General-use platforms provide broad access to frontier AI, such as large language models (LLMs), for a variety of general applications across different business and operational functions. These platforms serve as the foundation for frontier AI access, usage, and learning across the Department.

Key features and attributes of general-use platforms include:

• Rapid availability of cutting-edge frontier AI model(s);
• Easy and intuitive platform access, such as access through a web browser;
• Efficient execution of core tasks such as model inference; and
• Robust support for enabling frontier AI techniques, frameworks, and tools such as retrieval augmented generation, model orchestration engines, and model-enabled search.

Mission-specific Applications

Mission-specific applications apply frontier AI capabilities directly into key DoD operational workflows to drive mission success.

With the end-users and their mission at the core of their development, these applications integrate deeply with existing systems and data sources to address challenges and inefficiencies within current operational workflows while maintaining a focus on user experience that ensures intuitive interfaces and straightforward adoption by operators.

Domains of interest for mission-specific applications span both warfighting (e.g., logistics, command and control) and enterprise management (e.g., financial management, resource planning) domains.

Critical Enablers

Critical enablers support the successful adoption and implementation of frontier AI technologies in the Department’s missions and workflows. Critical enablers for frontier AI include (but are not limited to):

• Pre-built prompt and agent templates;
• Task management and orchestration frameworks;
• Benchmarks for model and workflow evaluations;
• Test harnesses;
• Input/output guardrails;
• Monitoring and analysis tools;
• Frontier AI standards and protocols;
• Frontier AI security and risk management tools; and
• Frameworks for system and workflow risk assessments.

Specialized AI Compute and Infrastructure

Specialized AI compute and infrastructure provide the technical foundation for the deployment of frontier AI across a diverse range of missions and operational environments.

This area of interest encompasses technical solutions that provide computing resources suitable for challenging mission environments and specialized hardware for AI applications for the enterprise and at the edge.

Challenge details

Submission instructions

Starting 01 MAY 2025, interested parties should submit a 5-minute video pitch through the CDAO's Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace, tagged with the "Frontier AI" strategic focus area.

Previous submissions to Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace which align with any of the above areas of interest do not need to reapply into the marketplace. The team will be reviewing new and existing solutions.

Submissions are assessed in accordance with the sam.gov announcement for Tradewinds Solution Marketplace (https://sam.gov/opp/fef4144dd2a245d8a4c7ee0cd6add1e6/view).

Contract awards

Contract awards leveraging the Frontier AI strategic focus area will be reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis starting in MAY 2025.

The total anticipated award amount through the Frontier AI strategic focus area is approximately $50 MM in FY25, distributed across multiple contracts spanning the identified areas of interest. Individual award amounts will vary based on solution scope, complexity, and expected impact.

The Frontier AI strategic focus area will continue to be reviewed and leveraged for contracts in FY26 and onward for government requirements pertaining to frontier AI. Updates to the scope of this strategic focus area will be posted on the Tradewinds website.

Additional information

• A Facility Security Clearance (FCL) may be required if the Government determines that it is necessary to complete the prototype effort. Vendors who receive awards may be required to ensure that they are eligible to receive and maintain an FCL.
• Preference may be given to companies whose solutions have been successfully deployed onto existing government networks or have obtained equivalent Authority to Operate (ATO) determinations.
• Companies may be expected to submit further information about their solutions or demonstrate their solutions in an unclassified environment as part of the Commercial Solutions Opening process.

Point of contact

For questions regarding this strategic focus area or other upcoming opportunities, please contact success@tradewindai.com.